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“This Mine is for the Entire Casamance Coastline”: The Politics of Scale and the Future of the Extractive Frontier in Casamance, Senegal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 October 2021

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Abstract

As evidenced by the widespread controversy surrounding an otherwise small-scale mining investment pending in Casamance, Senegal, uncertainty shapes the extension of the extractive frontier. Fent argues that amid this uncertainty, different actors are able to politicize or depoliticize extractive investments through the work of scaling. Opponents cast the project as part of larger-scale, longer-term extraction, linking it with regional narratives. By contrast, state and corporate actors depoliticized the mine by emphasizing its limited extent and downscaling conflict to the local level. This demonstrates the conflictual processes through which extractive frontiers are realized—and resisted—through both space and time.

Résumé

Résumé

Comme en témoigne la controverse généralisée autour d’un investissement minier d’échelle modeste et en attente en Casamance, au Sénégal, l’incertitude façonne l’extension de la frontière extractive. Fent fait valoir qu’au milieu de cette incertitude, différents acteurs sont en mesure de politiser ou de dépolitiser les investissements extractifs grâce à un travail de mise à l’échelle. Les opposants présentent le projet comme faisant partie d’une extraction à plus grande échelle et à plus long terme en le reliant aux récits régionaux. En revanche, les acteurs étatiques et corporatifs ont dépolitisé la mine en soulignant son étendue limitée et en réduisant le conflit au niveau local. Ceci démontre les processus conflictuels par lesquels les frontières extractives se réalisent - et se résistent - dans l’espace et le temps.

Resumo

Resumo

Conforme demonstra a ampla controvérsia em torno de um investimento mineiro de pequena escala pendente em Casamansa, Senegal, a extensão da fronteira extrativa é dominada pela incerteza. Segundo Fent, por entre esta incerteza, os vários atores conseguem politizar ou despolitizar os investimentos na indústria extrativa através da noção de escala. Os opositores consideram que o projeto faz parte de uma extração em larga escala e de longo prazo, vinculando-o a narrativas regionais. Pelo contrário, os atores estatais e corporativos despolitizaram a mina, realçando a sua pequena dimensão e enquadrando o conflito no contexto local. Assim, ficam demonstrados os processos conflituais através dos quais as fronteiras extrativas são concretizadas, bem como a resistência de que são alvo, ao longo do tempo e do espaço.

Keywords

landextractive industryminingscaleCasamanceSenegal
Type
Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 64 , Issue 3 , September 2021 , pp. 628 - 652
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the African Studies Association

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